Roberto d'Aubuisson, 48, Far-Rightist in Salvador

By RICHARD SEVERO

Published: February 21, 1992

Correction Appended

Roberto d'Aubuisson, a rightist leader and former national guard officer who was widely believed to be a principal proponent of assassinations by "death squads" during El Salvador's civil war, died yesterday in San Salvador, his doctor reported. Mr. d'Aubuisson was 48 years old.

He had been suffering from throat cancer since April 1991 and had made several trips to the United States for medical treatment. During the years of civil war, many wealthy landowners viewed Mr. d'Aubuisson as a relentless crusader against what they saw as threats to their existence from those demanding land redistribution and political reforms.

But he was despised by the leftist guerrillas and their sympathizers. Radio Farabundo Marti, the clandestine station of the guerrilla front, said on Jan. 30 that Mr. d'Aubuisson's impending death "seems to be an act of divine justice in this moment of national reconciliation." The allusion was to the Jan. 16 peace accord intended to bring an end to more than a decade of civil strife. Founder of a Party

Mr. d'Aubuisson founded the Nationalist Republican Alliance, a far-right political party, in 1981 and served as president of El Salvador's Constituent Assembly in 1982 and 1983. In 1984, he ran for the national presidency but lost to Jose Napoleon Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party. Mr. Duarte's successor, President Alfredo Cristiani, is a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as Arena.

But Mr. d'Aubuisson's primary reputation was not that of a politician in the usual meaning of the word. To many diplomats and to campaigners working to end years of civil war in El Salvador, Mr. d'Aubuisson was a violent right-wing radical who was a suspect in many killings, including the 1980 slaying of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

His opponents also suspected that Mr. d'Aubuisson was involved in the slayings of six Jesuit priests in 1989 and many other acts of violence against clerics and others, including the 1980 killing of Mario Zamora Rivas, El Salvador's Attorney General.

Robert E. White, United States Ambassador to El Salvador from 1977 to 1980, said Mr. d'Aubuisson had a "sick mind" and was a "pathological killer." In 1984, Reagan Administration officials said associates of Mr. d'Aubuisson had been involved in a plot, never carried out, to kill Thomas R. Pickering, who was then the United States Ambassador to El Salvador. Never Stood Trial

Mr. d'Aubuisson, who also served as national intelligence chief, never stood trial on any of these accusations.

He consistently denied that he had condoned death squads or that he had had anything to do with the plots attributed to him, asserting that his accusers were Communists or puppets of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Salvadoran had supporters, too. In 1983, Deane R. Hinton, who succeeded Mr. White as Ambassador, called Mr. d'Aubuisson "an intelligent man" and a "dynamic leader," although he also expressed some reservations about him.

In recent years, Mr. d'Aubuisson was a less visible figure but his party dominated the nation's turbulent legislative politics. Critics of Government policy believed that although President Cristiani held the top office in the land Mr. d'Aubuisson held effective power. But in his willingness to reach a peace accord with the rebels, Mr. Cristiani seemed to emerge from Mr. d'Aubuisson's shadow.

Speaking after the accord was reached, President Cristiani described Mr. d'Aubuisson as "one of the fundamental people in seeing to it that we are now enjoying democracy in the country."

He said Mr. d'Aubuisson had been "a fighter to open political spaces and look for a democratic path in the country" and had "always supported very openly the peace process."

The Arena party president, Armando Calderon Sol, said, "The major has lived, step by step, the process of pacification of the country, has given his support to the process, and I believe that he enjoyed the 16th, with the signing of the peace accords."

Mr. Cristiani also said of Mr. d'Aubuisson, "An enormous part of the population loves him a lot and listens to him and respects his points of view." Not a Wealthy Family

Roberto d'Aubuisson Arrieta was born on Aug. 23, 1943, in Santa Tecla, a small city not far from the capital, San Salvador. He was the son of Roberto d'Aubuisson Andrade, a salesman, and Joaquina Arrieta Alvarado d'Aubuisson, a career civil servant.

The family's paternal roots were French. Their presence in El Salvador began in the 19th century, when one of them worked for the de Lesseps Company in its doomed effort to build a canal across Central America.

The young Mr. d'Aubuisson was educated in a military academy and later served in the pro-rightist national guard, where he became interested in intelligence and national security work. He became a protege of Jose Alberto Medrano, a staunch anti-Communist who was the national guard's commander.

As a young officer, Mr. d'Aubuisson was given a tour of duty in the United States, where he studied intelligence and security in Virginia and New York. In 1970 and 1971, he studied at the International Police Academy in Washington. The academy was later closed after members of Congress said it had taught techniques of torture.

Later in the decade he was assigned to observe police techniques in Uruguay and Taiwan, and also spent time with the United States Special Forces in Panama. In 1975, he was assigned to the armed forces general staff in El Salvador.

During the next few years there was mounting pressure in El Salvador for land redistribution. The pressure came from a range of people, including Roman Catholic leaders. Landowners saw the demands as a threat. They found a friend in Mr. d'Aubuisson, who founded the Union of White Warriors, which came to be known as a death squad because of its suspected involvement in many killings. Dismissed From Military

In October 1979 officers staged a coup against the conservative civilian Government of President Carlos Humberto Romero. Mr. d'Aubuisson, by then a major, was dismissed from the armed forces because of his association with the hard-line right and opposition to the change in government. After a coup attempt in May 1980, he was arrested and accused of involvement but was released by a military judge.

In the fall of 1981 he formed Arena, and in 1982 was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. He led his party's efforts to thwart land reform, but suffered a series of legislative setbacks in 1983. After running for President in 1984 and losing to Mr. Duarte, he declined to run again in 1989 and Mr. Cristiani was Arena's candidate.

Mr. d'Aubuisson is survived by his wife, Luz Maria. He was separated from the former Yolanda Munguia, with whom he had four children, Roberto, Carolina, Silvia and Eduardo; they also survive him.

Photo: Roberto d'Aubuisson (Camera Press, 1984)

Correction: February 25, 1992, Tuesday Because of an editing error, an obituary on Friday about Roberto d'Aubuisson, the Salvadoran rightist leader, misidentified his second wife and misstated his relationship with his first wife. His widow, his second wife, is Marta Luz Angulo de d'Aubuisson; he was divorced, not separated, from his first wife, Yolanda, who is the mother of his four children.